ABCs of Me

Yesterday I tagged Jonathan in a “First Post” tag. His first blog post was… wait for this… a tag, in which he tagged me back! Ha! Talk about sneaky! Things like that are why he gets this result in the “One word that describes you” FB game:

I kid. Not about him being… well, what that sign says (It’s a sad thing to think that your twin is evil, though) but about the tags. I love tags.  So, on we go!

A – Age: See, age of Aquarius is kind of outdated. It’s now the Age of the Understatement. Just ask the Last Shadow Puppets.

B – Bed size: Why? Are you planning to stay over? You’d be disappointed. I’d make you sleep on the couch with the cats. One night with these cats and you’d never want to come back.

C – Chore you hate: Cleaning. All of it. Though I can actually kind of stand dusting, and I’ve gotten to where I can deal with washing dishes. I’d rather just get a maid, though.

D – Dog’s names: Fido. He’s named after a zombie. The zombie is named after a dog. It’s a good movie. You should check it out. 

E – Essential start your day item(s). The dog whining to go out. Without that I might never get up. Also eye drops or sometimes my eyes will literally not open.

F – Favorite color: Why do we always have to have a favorite? Why do we have to tell the colors that one is better than the other? All the little colors are equal in my eyes. except red. Red might be a little cooler, but don’t tell green. Green gets jealous easy.

G – Gold or Silver, or both: Silver. It looks great with green. (See, green, we love you.)

H – Height: Heights are very high. I don’t mind them, so long as they’re up there and I’m down here. Where it’s safe.

I – Instruments you play(ed):  I can play a snare drum as long as you don’t need rolls. Tympani drums are fun – even with the rolls – base drums, triangle, cymbals, maracas…I’d love to play the taiko drums…

J – Job title: Emperor of the Universe. It looks really impressive on business cards.

K – Kid(s): I have a pair of Goddaughters, does that count? It makes me the Godmother. That’s kind of like the Godfather, except I’m meaner – I mean, nicer. Yeah. Nicer.

L – Living arrangements: They’re not really arranged very well. Especially right now. Luckily it means I don’t have to do as much cleaning because I get to ignore all but four rooms.

M – Mom’s name: Old Woman seems to fit her pretty good.

N – Nicknames you have or had: Jo. That’s it. Though some people might say there are other nicknames, they would be lying. Jo is it.

O – Overnight hospital stay other than birth: I was there overnight when I was a baby because my immunizations made me sick.  I don’t love any of my family enough to stay with them overnight. I’d miss party time if I did.

P – Pet peeve: I have a really long list. I found an old blog post that had like 25 listed, and it doesn’t cover everything. It just shows how annoying the world is.

Q – Quote from a movie: “What… is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?”

R – Right or left-handed: There’s more of the segregation! First colors, and now hands? That’s a great idea. Let’s have the right and left hand in competition, then they’ll never work together and we’ll never get anything done.

S – Siblings: I have a younger brother. I’ve been trying – unsuccessfully – to train him for 35 years. I also have an evil twin who has different parents, a completely different birthday, and is older than me…

T – Time I wake up: When the dog whines to go out. I thought I covered that already?

U- Underwear: Is very important. I think the freedom to not wear underwear is undermining our entire society. We used to be moral and upright, and look how much underwear people wore back then?

V – Vegetable you dislike: Broccoli. Cauliflower. Asparagus. Beans. Wait. Are they a vegetable? I think they go on the protein tier of the food pyramid…

W – Ways you run late: I don’t really run. I usually mosey late. I didn’t get this potato-like figure by running.

X – X-rays you’ve had: Teeth, lungs, ankle…I think that’s about it.

Y – Yummy food you make: Anything I cook is yummy. Except that rice dish I made years ago. With the squash and carrots in it. It looked good in the picture, but the recipe did not deliver.

Z- Zoo/favorite animal: Now we’re trying to pit the animals against themselves?? Good grief! What is with all this conflict? This should be called the Conflicts of You tag!

As to tagging people, I am going to be sneaky and say that anyone who reads this can be tagged if they want to be. Or I could tag Jonathan again. It might be fun to see him do an updated version of this (his post was from 2010). Yeah. I think I will.

I tag Jonathan! No tags back!

Gwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!

Have an ABC kinda day!

Jo 🙂

 

(PS – they have redone wordpress again and I don’t like it!)

Chain Letter Award 😈😈

I got this from My Ambivalent Existence  who I found through Just Plan Vic’s Meet and Greet post. (check it out, too!) 

So , this is how this one works. I will post a list of questions. the first person who reads them comments “mine” and can then answer in the comments.

Then they get to create a post using their own questions “chain letter award ” and so on and so forth

 

Do you like to swim?

Have you ever killed a plant?

Do you still use a checkbook?

What is the last app you used on your phone?

Have a good one – and someone claim this though the chain is not ruined!

Chinese Portrait

I got this from Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie. Be sure to check out their blog.

What is a Chinese Portrait? It is a set of questions ones answers about themselves. Most people agree the answers should be spontaneous. They’re then used to get to know the writer better.

Though I looked, I could not (easily) fins an origin for this, so if you’re curious you’ll have to do your own research.

On to my Chinese Portrait:

 

If I were a sound… I would be falling rain.

If I were an animal… I would be a cat; pampered and petted.

If I were a flaw… I would be a crack in a mirror.

If I were a season… I would be autumn when colors blaze.

If I were music… I would be a violin piece.

If I were a sin… I would be greed.

If I were an element… I would be earth, whether I like it or not.

If I were a song… I would be Jingle Bells, sung loudly and off key.

If I were a color… I would be red.

If I were a fruit…. I would be watermelon.

 

If I were an insect… I would be a butterfly. (does that count?)

 

If I were a natural phenomenon… I would be a tornado – become the thing you fear.

If I were a month…I would be October.

If I were a place…I would be a wooded stream with lots of bunnies hanging around.

If I were a job… I would be annoying and detail orientated.

If I were a word… I would be happy.

What would YOU be? Feel free to post your answers in your blog, or in a comment, or even on Facebook. You can use these questions or you can make up your own/find others you’d rather answer.

Have a red Jingle Bells kind of day!

Jo 🙂

 

Starlight Blogger Award

The awesome Rami Ungar has nominated me for the Starlight Blogger Award! How cool is that? I should probably have accepted it on my author blog but I’m in need of something to post here, so….

Hey, it’s all still me.

So here are the rules:

1. Thank the giver and link their blog to your post.

2. Answer the 3 original questions and then the 3 new questions from your nominator given to you.

3. Nominate your 6 favorite bloggers! In your nominees I would like for you to think at the light emanating from the stars the ones that truly touch your soul with their work, the ones that are the light for you a true STARLIGHT Blogger.

4. Please pass the award on to 6 or more other Bloggers of your choice and let them know that they have been nominated by you.

5. Include the logo of the award in a post or on your Blog, please never alter the logo, never change the 3 original questions answer that first then answer the 3 new questions from your nominator and never change the Award rules.

6. Please don’t delete this note:

The design for the STARLIGHT Bloggers Award has been created from YesterdayAfter. It is a Copyright image, you cannot alter or change it in any way just pass it to others that deserve this award.

Copyright 2015 © YesterdayAfter.com – Design by Carolina Russo”

Alright, so here are my answers to the original questions:

1. If you could meet anyone throughout history, who and why? I would like to meet Shakespeare. My motives are not ones that most people would agree with – Yes, his plays are good, but is he the most genius writer that ever lived? No. I;d like to meet him and prove he’s just human, like all the other writers, not a literary God. Then if I had time I’d go talk to Poe who I think deserves more credit than he gets.

2. What is your favorite book and why? This is a hard one. I’m going to choose The Last Unicorn today because I’m in that kind of a mood.

3. Who is your favorite fiction character from any medium and why? Oooooh! Any medium… let’s just make it hard! Like the books, this changes all the time. I’m kind of between things right now – nothing has really grabbed me and dragged me away. The last thing that did was the anime Saiyuki and it was Sanzo and the prince that really caught my attention. I love the different layers to the story – with the reincarnation aspect giving you their past life in heaven and then their “current” life on their journey west.

The three new questions:

1. When was the last time you saw a scary movie? What was it, what did you think, and do you normally watch scary movies?

It’s been a week or two – Mom and I watched Lady in Black 2. I thought it was pretty good, it fit in well with the mythology they had already created in the first movie, which often doesn’t happen in prequels/sequels. And yes! We watch them a lot – it’s kind of me and my mom’s “thing” to watch either scary movies or else real crime shows (like Forensics files) or ghost hunting shows.

2. What are you dressing up for this Halloween? What are your plans for the holiday?

I was hoping to buy a new costume this year – it was down to three on Amazon – a warrior woman, a red riding hood that could have been turned evil easily, and a cool black ensemble (i think they had it as a witch but I;d have used it for a vampire) BUT alas, the fundage is not there, so I guess I’ll drag out my box of capes (yes, I have several!) and try to find something to wear under it. We’ll probably have trick or treaters again (which is awesome!) if it’s like last year we’ll have around 200 of them, so that will last until dark and then I imagine we’ll have a family halloween party like usual. (Though the brother is talking about dressing as a gangster so I may try to find something that goes with that instead)

3. What is something (book/TV show/comic book/movie) from your childhood that you still enjoy today?

The Last Unicorn. Ha ha! That worked well! 😉

And here are the original questions for my nominees:

1. What was the last TV show you watched? Was it good?
2. Stripes or polka dots? Why?
3. Do you watch Youtube, and if so, what kinds of things do you watch on it?

And now for my nominees:

• Jonathan Harvey
• Bonnie Mutchler
• Colleen Bruening
• Chris the Story Reading Ape
• Vic
• Waffle Me This

Have a good night all!
Jo 🙂

Creative Blogger Award

Waffle Me This has been kind enough to nominate me for the Creative Blogger Award – how cool is that? A huge thank you to him. And to everyone else be sure to go check out his blog which houses a variety of posts from photography to writing to music. (Random style blogs are always my favorite.)

And now for the rules:

The Creative Blogger Award rules are:

1. Display the Creative Blogger Award logo on your blog
2. Nominate up to 10 blogs and notify all nominees via their social media/blogs
3. Thank and post the link of the blog that nominated you (very important)
4. Pass these rules on to them

And the nominees are:

• Juli Hoffman
• DM Yates
• Barbara Tarn
• Yesterday After
• Sue Vincent

There’s no questions to answer, and no post topic, so i am going to share some pics with you, including the flooded compost yard I mentioned. I realize it won’t have as much impact since you don’t know what it’s supposed to look like, but it’s crazy in person.

the compost lake

seriously, it looks like a lake

It’s nuts!

clouds from today

more clouds

pretty

Rain on the flowers

taken the other day on the way to Red Oak

Patoli’s pizza for dinner!!

from a few days ago, but pretty enough to share now.

Have a good one!

Jo 🙂

Blogger Recognition Award

I was lucky enough  to be nominated for this amazing award by Waffle Me This the other day. I’m late in posting it because I have been working on that short story which I’m happy to say is finished and off to the betas.

Anyway, a huge thank you for the nomination! It made my day.

The Rules:

Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to.
Do some digging if you must! Find those blogs. You cannot nominate yourself or the person who has nominated you.
Write a post to show off your award! Give a brief story of how your blog got started, and give a piece or two of advice to new bloggers.
Thank whoever nominated you, and provide a link to their blog.
List who you’ve nominated in the post.
Make sure to also attach the award itself! (You can do this by right-clicking, saving, and uploading the image above).
Comment on each blog and let them know you’ve nominated them.
Provide a link to the award post you created.
Provide a link to the original post on edge of night. That way, anyone can find the original guidelines and post if needed, and we can keep it from mutating and becoming confusing!

My Blog Story:

This is actually a continuation of the blog I had on MySpace – at first I even copied some of the old posts over (I never got around to doing all of them.)- which was a continuation of my Yahoo blog. I don’t remember how I started on yahoo – i was heavy into a lot of the social aspects of it back in 2005. I was in a bunch of groups – which I discovered through a paper doll group – and I had the blog and spent a lot of time on messenger. In 2006 I moved to MySpace because I knew basic HTML and a friend of mine – who I’d met in a Harry Potter chat group and had gotten close to through a fan fiction/role play group – opened an account there and wanted help with her profile, so I thought “what the heck”. I was pretty active on MySpace until it went to hell in 2010, then I moved here.

But that doesn’t really say *why* I blog. I wish I had a really deep answer – something about sharing my inner soul or connecting with people, but in the end the real reason I blog is because I think it’s fun. I always wanted to write a newspaper column, and isn’t that what blogging is? We’re all unpaid columnists now, spewing our opinions, anecdotes, trials, and tribulations out into the void and hoping that someone, somewhere will read it and be amused, or touched, or entertained. Is that a good enough reason?

Which takes me to my advice to bloggers. Audience is great, but unless your blog is part of your business platform, blog for yourself – because it’s fun and you enjoy it. I know people who make it into a chore and hate it. If you don’t like it, don’t do it. If you’re not having a good time it shows, and your readers won’t be either.

And now for fifteen nominations. If I nominated you and you don’t participate in awards then please don’t feel obligated. I hope you view it as the compliment I mean it as.

• Donna Yates
• Roger Lawrence
• Mark Hunter
• Maegan Provan
• Tricia Drammeh
• Yesterday After
• Kay Kauffman
• March House Books
• CG Coppola
• Eric Robert Nolan 
• The Owl Lady
• Jo Traveller
• Plain Ol’ Vic
• alien soul mates
• Sue Vincent

And it’s now 4:30 a.m. and waaaaaaay past my bedtime, so have a good one, all!

Jo 🙂

First Post Challenge

Just Plain O’l Vic had this on his blog the other day. He had an open challenge for anyone who wanted to participate, and since I am heading off the a BBQ tonight and may not have time to post anything, it seemed like a nice idea to schedule this one.

Here are the rules:

• Copy-paste, link or pingback your first post.  Copied it below
• Identify the post.  Introduction
• Explain why it was your first post. It seemed abrupt to just  start in without something. Sadly the second post is waaay more interesting – it’s about over-coddling teens and wondering why they do stupid things. Yeah I used to write a lot of opinion pieces. The first post barely counts as a post IMHO.
• Nominate 5 other bloggers.  Just like with Vic, consider this an open invitation to anyone that is interested.

***************

Testing This Out

December 17, 2010

I’ve had a blog on MySpace since 2006, but with recent changes there (aka 3.0) I think having a secondary version is a good idea. However, I can’t just transfer all the blog posts because MySpace doesn’t “get along” with any other blog system, so I will be posting a selection of some old – but hopefully good – blogs, hopefully one a day or so until I can get caught up. After that posting will slow way down.

***************

Of note: I never finished transferring them all. Oh well.

 

Quote Challenge and Such

Anne R Murray was kind enough to challenge me with the 3 day quote challenge. If you’ve never checked out her blog, please hop on over and while you’re there check out her books too! (They’re listed on the left sidebar of her blog)

And now to the challenge. Nominees post one quote a day for three days – it can be their own or someone else’s – and nominate three bloggers a day to join in.

Today’s quote is from the movie Ride With the Devil (which is one of my favorites):

It ain’t right and it ain’t wrong, it just is.

There is an amazing amount of wisdom in those words that describes the whole world, most of society, and 90% of life. It’s not right, it’s not wrong, it just is – and what matters is what you make of it.

For nominees, I nominate/tag:

• Jisilly
• Bonnie Mutchler

Past that I’m fighting with my text messaging (It’s not sending videos) and working on the Amaranthine Handbook. I’m on the last page of G – which is also page 39. wOOt! I have to go help Dad with his cell phone tomorrow, so it may be a more exciting blog. At least one with pictures in it. Oh heck, let’s find some photos for this one….

Aha! The garage sale find of the weekend: The Barbie Friend Ship:

is it a suitcase?

No! It’s an airplane!

the stewardess cart is even there!

the seating area

I know. Sooooooooooo cool! 🙂

Okay, and now I am out of here. Have a good one!

Jo 🙂

The STARLIGHT Blogger Award

Carolina from Yesterday After has nominated me for the very awesome Starlight Blogger award!

This Award is created to highlight and promote Inspiring Bloggers.*

Isn’t it pretty? For those who might not know how blog awards work, each has a set of rules that nominees follow once they accept the award. In this case the rules are to:

• Thank the giver and link to their blog post
• Answer 6 questions: 3 are the ORIGINAL QUESTIONS and the other 3 are the NEW QUESTIONS created by the blogger who gives you the award
• Nominate 6 or more bloggers for this award by naming them and then letting them know with a link to your post that they have been nominated
• Include the award logo and the disclaimer in your post, and please do not change the ORIGINAL QUESTIONS.

So first I have to say a huge thank you to Yesterday After for this beautiful award. If you’ve never read her blog check it out for beautiful jewelry designs (which you can buy on her etsy page!) as well as art and photography. (Yes, she is multi-talented!)

THE ORIGINAL QUESTIONS:

1. If you describe or picture your inner soul how will you describe it?

I believe in reincarnation and think my soul has been here more than a few times, and oddly enough doesn’t seem to be in a huge hurry to move on to the next plain of existence because there are too many things here it has yet to see/do/experience. If I had to choose a color red pops instantly into my head, with all the subtle meanings associated with it.

2. What are you working on right now?

The Amaranthine Handbook, an encyclopedia of the world my paranormal novel series is set in. I will send it as a free gift to all who subscribe to my email list, and we’ll see where it goes from there. It may never be available for purchase.

3. What is your creative dream project?

A graphic novel, though I don’t know what story, I’ve just always wanted to do one because it combines writing and visual art. However the incredible time drain has always prevented me from doing one.

NEW QUESTIONS FROM YESTERDAY AFTER:

1. Where has your journey here on WordPress lead you so far?

I’ve enjoyed wordpress for several years, but have never done power blogging like I used to do on MySpace (back to those time constraints), nor have I really joined into any of the “communities”. However, I’ve still met some great people (for instance Donna Yates, an awesome author and very talented lady) and have gotten to know people better (Juli Hoffman and Sue Koenig spring instantly to mind).

2. When did you discovered that your talent was something to pursue?

I’ve been writing and drawing since I was a kid, though I took a few year hiatus once I “grew up”. It was actually a Harry Potter chat group that got me to write again – they started doing a sort-of-RP-game. Friends I made there were the ones who convinced me that I should publish my vampire series. Two in particular – Carolyn and Cyber – were instrumental in my overcoming my fears and whipping the manuscript into viewable shape.
3. What is the emotion, that you will never want to be without?

‘Wonder” will work as the term, though ti sounds a bit artsy. But I hate to think of the day when watching baby birds, or seeing a snapping turtle for the first time, or just enjoying the way the sunlight catches the grass on a hill fails to impress or interest me. I’m easily amazed and entertained, and I like that. It makes the world a funner place.

Now, for my nominations:

1. Ruth Ann Nordin – another amazing author I met via blogging

2. Anne R Murray – another great author who I’ve only recently started following, but who has an awesome blog.

3. The Mischief Memoirs – poetry I found through the wordpress community

4. Barbara K – I actually met her back on MySpace blogging

5. Kay Kauffman – Another amazing poet that I have gotten to know through blogging

6. Elisabeth Wheatly – yet one more great author, whose blog I usually stalk silently (I do this to several bloggers :p)

here are the three NEW QUESTIONS that these nominees will answer if they accept:

1. If you could time travel, where and when would you go?

2. If you could bring any literary character to life, who would it be?

3. What is one thing you hope to accomplish by the end of the year?

Any nominees who are not interested in participating, please don’t feel obligated, but I wanted to give you some recognition for your awesome blogs regardless. However, if you do participate that would be awesome!

Have a good one!

*Please don’t delete this note: the design for the STARLIGHT Bloggers Award has been created from YesterdayAfter is a Copyright image you cannot alter or change it in any way just pass it to others that deserve this award.
Copyright 2015 © YesterdayAfter.com – Design by Carolina Russo

Love/Hate Challenge

Carolina, from the awesome Yesterday After blog, challenged me with the Love/Hate challenge. Participants list ten things they love, ten things they hate, and tag ten bloggers to do the same. Let’s see if I can do it.

Ten Things I Love:

1. anime

2. Flowers

I love these roses

these are pretty too

The poppies are orange! Yay!

Finally bloomed

so many

3. cats

4. my husband and family and friends

5. writing

6. drawing

7. the smell of leaves and rain

8. The Last Unicorn (I was listening to the Sound Track earlier 😉 )

9. stuffed animals

10. Jewelry and nail polish (I am a compulsive shopper when it comes to these and after sorting out our room and seeing that I have a vanity drawer for each, I’ve had to say “no more” until I get rid of some)

There are lots of other things I love, but those were the ones that popped into my head

Ten Things I Hate:

1. Cruelty to animals

2. Ridiculous societal standards (anymore, men have it as bad as women)

3. vacuuming (there’s a reason we’re going to all hardwood)

4. moving

5. songs/stories that make me cry (Puff the Magic Dragon and Velveteen Rabbit top the list)

6. Cruelty to old people

7. cat hair all over the house (yet I love the cats…)

8. being sick (yep, the sinus infection is still here)

9. No having the energy I think I should have/need to have to get things done

10. Wasting time. Life is so short and there’s not enough time as it is, so wasting it is just… well, a waste.

And now I have to tag 10 people. Let me see if I can think of ten people that might be interested. If I’ve tagged you and you’re not interested, no worries, and if I haven’t tagged you and you are then awesome!

Donna Yates

Roger Lawrence

Barbara at March House Books

Maegan Provan

Tricia Drammeh

Barbara Tarn

Joanne McCullough (a fellow Jo!)

Rami Ungar

Bonnie Mutchler

Jonathan Harvey

If you choose to participate, please share your links in the comments. Looking forward to see what you all love and hate!

As a special bonus, here are three more of those Amaranthine Handbook Pages – I’m ready to start E now.

Have a good one!

Jo 🙂